It isn’t nice being an oppressed minority, just ask any dog owner, particularly in Auckland City – possibly the least dog friendly place in all of New Zealand.

Thank goodness the council has started to see a bit of common sense, starting to relax their dog control policies just a tad.

Under the previous system dog owners were given instant fines, sometimes in appalling circumstances — several I know of involved caring dog owners that were making the effort to drive their dogs, sometimes quite out of the way, to one of the few approved off-leash areas, then getting out of their cars in the carpark, and being snapped by the dog wardens lying in wait for them, because they let their dog walk off the lead from the car park, into the park – never mind that the car park was inside the park itself!

This was appalling behaviour – nothing to do with revenue gathering, of course, no, it’s a public safety issue, and anyone that disagrees is clearly a violent anarchist that wants to see your childs face eaten off.

From NZ Herald 21/09:

Carolina’s father John Anderson said he did not agree with the new system.

"Surely dog control officers can use their discretion, these are the very things that encouraged the incident against Carolina."

No, John, that’s the point, it was a zero tolerance policy! They had no discretion! The new system means less fines, and that’s okay with me, but I think it should go further, I think that it shouldn’t be a one warning then a huge fine system, it should involve intelligent and well trained dog wardens that can use their discretion as often as they like.

I hope this is just the start of the changes, not just with nice doggies, but with other fines based systems right across the board.

I’m not a revenue source for you (council, central government, police force), you’re my representatives, but only for as long as I want you to be.